'Kick It, Kentucky' spends week encouraging smoking cessation in a state with the nation's highest smoking rate

By Melissa Patrick
Kentucky Health News

Kentuckians who want to stop smoking can take advantage of the many cessation tools offered by the state, including a new law that requires insurance companies to cover smoking-cessation treatments and counseling without imposing barriers.

That was the message at the Sept. 27 announcement of the first ever "Kick It, Kentucky" week, where more than two dozen organizations gathered in Lexington to promote smoking cessation.

"More adults in Kentucky smoke than in any other state in the nation and we also have the second-highest youth smoking rate in the country, but the good news is there has never been a better time to quit," said Erica Palmer Smith, Kentucky government relations director for the American Cancer Society's Cancer Action Network, one of the supporting organizations.

Several of the health advocates noted a long list of health benefits that come to a person who stops smoking: Within 20 minutes of quitting, a person's heart rate and blood pressure drop; within a couple of weeks, their lung function improves; and within a year, their risk of a heart attack drops by half. These benefits are listed on a poster that will be placed in doctors' office waiting rooms and public buildings as part of the Kick It, Kentucky effort.

Sen. Julie Raque Adams

Sen. Julie Raque Adams, R-Louisville, who was the primary sponsor of the smoking-cessation bill, told the group that smoking kills more than 9,000 Kentuckians a year, and stressed that "tobacco continues to be the leading cause of preventable death in the commonwealth."

The new law requires all insurance policies sold in Kentucky, and Medicaid, to cover all smoking-cessation treatments and counseling approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration with no barriers to access. For example, the law bans co-payments or deductibles for cessation products.

"There's never been a better time to quit," said Adams, who is also the chairwoman of the Senate Health and Welfare Committee. "Kentuckians who decide to quit will reap immense and immediate health benefits."

The president and CEO of the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky, Ben Chandler, told the group that in addition to leading the nation in cancer and deaths from it, Kentucky ranks near the bottom of states for heart disease deaths, adult asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) -- which are all related to smoking.

"Therefore, I submit to you that the single most effective thing that we can do to improve the health of the people in this commonwealth is to reduce those smoking rates," he said. "Ladies and gentlemen,we've just simply got to do it. We've got to do it. It's a crisis and the need is dire."

He noted that this can be accomplished on a community and statewide level through smoke-free laws and raising the cigarette tax, or on an individual level, as Cheryl Weiss did.

Weiss, 36, said she smoked 20 years before quitting this year. "I got to where smoking was taking my time, my money and my energy," she said.

The Lexington woman credited her decision to quit smoking to an incentive program at her work that directed her to an eight-week smoking cessation program called "Freedom from Smoking" through the American Lung Association.

She said that by not smoking, she will save $26 every two weeks on her health insurance, plus the savings from not buying cigarettes -- and she said, "I feel healthier."

Other resources to help quit smoking can be found at www.quitnowkentucky.org and www.smokefreetomorrow.org. Kentucky's Tobacco Quitline is 1-800-QUIT-NOW (1-800-784-8669). In addition, many local health departments offer smoking cessation classes.